45 Minutes from Hollywood

This movie will always be remembered for having both Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy in it (even though they're never a the same scene together.).

It basically is a movie with zero story and is only filled with some slapstick and comical moments. It has some incredible good timed moments which provides the movie with some hilarious sequences and moments. The movie also works pretty good as a satire on Hollywood.

Especially Stan Laurel shows his comical talent in a short scene. Also Oliver Hardy is good in a much bigger role. But real main character of the movie is played by Glenn Tryon who also really wasn't bad.

Not a brilliant highly memorable silent comedy but it's well constructed and good for some laughs. It certainly deserves more credit.

7/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were comedic geniuses, individually and together, and their partnership was deservedly iconic and one of the best there was. They left behind a large body of work, a vast majority of it being entertaining to classic comedy, at their best they were hilarious and their best efforts were great examples of how to do comedy without being juvenile or distasteful.

It was in fact Laurel and Hardy that were my reason for seeing their second collaboration '45 Minutes from Hollywood' in the first place, and how my knowledge of its existence came to me as part of my Laurel and Hardy "re-watch and review output" quest. '45 Minutes from Hollywood' doesn't really do them, as individuals and as a double act, justice and is not particularly good in its own right judging it as a short film. Not awful and far from unwatchable, not much great at the same time either.

'45 Minutes from Hollywood' has plus points. It doesn't look too bad and boasts a couple of amusing if never hilarious moments that stop it from being completely unfunny.

The whole cast do their best with what they have and do a more than serviceable job.

On the other hand, Laurel and Hardy are not much of a double act, sharing no scenes together, and screen time-wise Hardy has more to so while Laurel is near-wasted in a mere one scene. Not much of their material is funny, which is true of much of the humour in general. It tended to be clumsy and predictable, some of it repetitive. Considering the title, it is hard not to be disappointed when the short doesn't do anywhere near enough with its premise, pretty much neglecting it after a promising start and favouring slapstick to it.

Regarding the story, it is paper thin and too often lacks energy as a result of feeling over-stretched and like it doesn't go very far. One does wish there was more variety for something as slapstick and pratfall-heavy as '45 Minutes from Hollywood', the lack of variety makes it feel repetitive.

To conclude, okay for a one-time watch but underwhelming. 4/10 Bethany Cox

Much of this two-reel comedy is rather unexceptional, but it does have a couple of good sequences. Glenn Tryon and the rest of the cast add some energy to the material, and part of it is mildly interesting as a satire on the idol-worship of movie stars that was already so prevalent even in its era. Otherwise, the movie doesn't really go anywhere, and though it does have a lot of motion, only very occasionally is it funny or exciting.

Tryon is part of a family of rural Californians who make a trip to Hollywood, ostensibly to pay a bill, with Tryon's character getting led astray by his inability to distinguish fantasy from reality. He also draws a detective played by Oliver Hardy into the mess he has created. Along the way, there are some occasional brief glimpses at a few of the stars of the era.

A couple of the sequences work rather well, but the rest of it is distinguished only by a brief scene in which Hardy and Stan Laurel, in a small role, appear on-screen together. It still works all right as light viewing for anyone who enjoys the silent comedies of the era, but otherwise it is only notable for this moment of significance in movie history.

He's almost completely forgotten today, but for a couple of years in the mid-1920s Glenn Tryon was one of several comedians Hal Roach signed and tried to boost to stardom. After the departure of Harold Lloyd from the studio in 1923, Tryon starred in two features that had been intended for Lloyd. Roach's other would-be stars of the period included Clyde Cook, Snub Pollard, Jimmy Finlayson, Tyler Brooke, Will Rogers and Stan Laurel. Rogers wouldn't achieve top movie stardom until talkies came along, while Laurel, of course, wasn't a major star until he teamed with Oliver Hardy in 1927. Meanwhile, however, there was Glenn Tryon. I've watched several of the guy's comedies and, while he's modestly appealing, frankly I can see why he didn't exactly set the world on fire. He was rather handsome, resembling Bob Cummings with a hint of Billy Haines. In the late '20s Tryon starred in two memorable features for Paul Fejos, then he became a writer and director. I don't know if he contributed any ideas to the comedies he made at Roach, but his material is generally weaker than the average Roach product from the same period, more like imitation Sennett-style antics than the comparatively subtle, situation-based comedy we expect from this studio. In two of the Tryon shorts I've seen, Along Came Auntie and this one, the opening scenes are promising but comic invention soon flags, at which point the plot is thrown out the window and the actors just chase each other, and indulge in tiresome fist-fights. Tryon seemed to have a penchant for dressing up in ladies' clothing, but wasn't especially funny when he did so, and his comedies also featured risqué situations that could turn vulgar -- again, without the crucial wit that can make such routines enjoyable.

45 Minutes from Hollywood is better remembered than Tryon's other efforts, not because it's good (it isn't, especially) but because of the supporting cast. The opening sequence introduces our hero as a rural boy named Orville who is sent to Hollywood with his sister and Grandpa to make a mortgage payment on their property. Why Hollywood? Why not, say, Duluth? Because they don't have movie stars in Duluth! We're primed to expect a satire on the motion picture capital as Grandpa excitedly reads a movie magazine and anticipates meeting Gloria Swanson, Pola Negri, etc. The eager trio have some difficulty making their train on time, but then poor Grandpa is unceremoniously dumped and left behind. When Orville and his sister arrive at their destination we are treated to a fascinating, action-packed, surreal image of "Hollywood -- A Quiet Morning" featuring a stunt man dangling from a plane while animated elephants and dinosaurs cavort in the background. The process work isn't the greatest, even for the period, but the bit is charming nonetheless and whets our appetite for more fun scenes. Next, Orville and his sister take a ride on a double-decker bus, as the conductor points out various stars visible on the sidewalk: the Our Gang kids, the Hal Roach Bathing Beauties, and the one and only Theda Bara, seen in a brief snippet from her concurrent, Roach- produced comedy Madam Mystery.

Unfortunately, this is where the story takes a wrong turn and never recovers. Orville gets involved with some crooks who have robbed a bank, and winds up at a nearby hotel with one of the hold-up men, who is inexplicably dressed in drag. The crook knocks Orville unconscious and switches clothes with him. Upon awakening, the bewigged Orville spends way too much time trying to elude a hotel detective, who is played by Oliver Hardy. Hardy manages to elicit more laughter with a couple of eloquent facial expressions than Tryon earns with all his mugging and dashing about. The last portion of the film substitutes non-stop fighting for any real comedy, topped by a closing gag in poor taste. The setting was wasted, and the film may as well have been set in Duluth after all. There's one more surprise, however: during the climactic donnybrook some of the players tumble into a room inhabited by a mustachioed character, a man identified as a "Starving Actor," sitting up in his bed. Underneath that mustache is Stan Laurel, and although he and Ollie have no scenes together, this near-meeting marks their first appearance together at the Roach Studio, where they would soon produce their great comedies.

That's the one minor claim to fame held by this otherwise forgettable, disappointing comedy. As for Glenn Tryon . . . well, nice try.

Several years after first appearing together in The Lucky Dog, Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy both ended up at the Hal Roach Studios-Stan as a writer and director, Ollie as supporting player, usually as a heavy. Between May 1925 and January 1926, they combined their respective talents on three films at The Lot of Fun: Yes, Yes Nanette, Wandering Papas, and Madame Mystery. Eventually, Stan would be persuaded to appear on film again. And so in August of '26, both Stan and Ollie appeared again on the same short-but not together. Ollie played a hotel detective chasing the leading man (Glenn Tryon) while Stan played a sleeping guest whose nap is bothered by Glenn's fight with another man when they crash in his room. Ollie is outside of Stan's door but he never comes in narrowly missing meeting Stan by several feet. They're both funny here what with Stan's befuddlement at the goings on and Ollie's occasional looks to the camera when confronted with his jealous wife. The film is mostly slapdash but I laughed heartily at most of it. The main reason I'm reviewing this now is because since I'm reviewing Our Gang shorts in chronological order, this was the next on my list since they appear here in an insert from one of their then-recent films. So on that note, I highly recommend 45 Minutes from Hollywood especially if you're an L & H completist.